Walking the Talk, by Rev Steven R Mitchell, 11/4/2012 for Mountain View United, Aurora, CO

Walking the Talk
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
Mountain View United, Aurora, CO 11/4/2012
Based on Ruth 1:1-18
 In my first parish out of seminary, it was expected of me to lead a mid-week bible study.  Feeling rather intimidated by the prospect of being the teaching authority, and knowing that many of scholarly things that I had learned about the books of the bible would not go over very well with the congregation that I was called to, and also knowing how delicate the relationship between pastor and congregation was with this group who had had a major upset with the previous pastor, I decided to do a study on a book that would have very little controversy within its pages, or so I thought.  I choose for our first book of study the book of Ruth.
 After all, here is a book that speaks about unconditional love.  What better topic for a congregation that had been split apart and alienated from the larger community for its perceived “unchristian” behavior toward members and pastor.  This is a love story of how two women brought together by marriage become one family, caring for one another, and triumphantly over came all the difficulties and hardships that being two widows of the time would have encounter. 
Easy book study, right.  Wrong!  I stepped right into the frying pan without even realizing it.  Do you know that when it says that Ruth laid at the feet of Boaz there on the thrashing floor, most of those folks in the bible study envisioned Ruth literally laying at Boaz’s feet, like an obedient dog might do!  Maybe some of you have that same image, if so, know now that I see that phrase as a metaphor about intimate relationships.  I can safely tell you that the way I now understand the book of Ruth is not the same understanding that I came out of seminary with.  Do I still step into the frying pan today when I talk on this seemingly simple story?  You bet I do.  But the difference from the first time I taught on Ruth and now is I know that I most likely will be walking into the frying pan.
Over the years, I have grown to appreciate the depth of what seems to be a simple love story.  And it is a love story, a love story that speaks of unconditional love, a love story that speaks to the relationship of God to humanity, a love story that screams of extravagant giving and acceptance.  It is a story that challenges many principles that a society who trusts in Capitalism should take a closer look at, instead of being the monkey who holds his hands to his ears so he “hears no evil”, or being the monkey who holds his hands over his eyes so he “sees no evil”, or even the monkey who holds his hands over his mouth, so he will “speak no evil.”
When my eldest daughter was 18 or 19 years old, she and her boyfriend decided to spend a weekend visiting my sister.  Now I thought this was great, because my children didn’t get to spend a lot of time with my side of the family after their mother and I divorced.  Several weeks later, as I was discussing how wonderful I thought it was that my daughter had paid her a visit, my sister brought a little bit of reality into my world.  “You do realize Steve, that both of the kids stayed in the same bedroom, don’t you?”  This is not the type of information that a father wishes to hear about his adult daughter, of who still thinks of his daughter as “daddy’s little girl” and I immediately found myself telling my sister, “I don’t want to hear about this.”  I did the hands on my ear thing and sang, “La, la, la, la, la…”
The story that Ruth tells the church is very much like the information that my sister was trying to share with me, and I think the church very much reacts like I did with the “La, la, la, la, la”, hands over the ears, maybe even over the eyes and most certainly with hands over our mouths, so we don’t have to speak about the truths that scripture challenges us with.
So here is the scoop about Ruth.  The most obvious use today in the book of Ruth is to speak about the alien, the foreigner within our midst.  I suspect, many a minister this morning will focus on the shambles that our countries immigration laws are in.  This year’s Presidential elections will very much have a say in what the future holds for those people who are living productive lives in our country that are undocumented. 
This focus would not be unwarranted, for the church in this country is far too silent on this issue, but the understanding of alien or foreigner is what is open for interpretation.  Just as in Mark 12, when a scribe asked Jesus what was the greatest law or commandment, Jesus answered, saying: “30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’[f] But then Jesus compounded this commandment by adding,”31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[g] There is no commandment greater than these.” 
I am sure that the scribe was very satisfied, for there was no stretch to what was already understood.  Love God, that’s the one who is the provider of all things.  Love our neighbor, that’s easy as well, for that means anyone who is like me.  You see in the Hebrew mind, the neighbor was another way of saying your countryman, or since you were a Jew, your neighbor was anyone who would be a Jew as well.  Your neighbor was certainly not a gentile.  
Jesus understood this limited interpretation of “neighbor” and addressed it with the story about the good Samaritan.  In that story, the two Jews who crossed the road so as to not having to help the man who had been brutalized and left to die, represented the governmental and religious sections of Hebrew society, the two institutions that were charged with the care and well being of its people.  It was an outsider, a none Jew who stopped and helped the man in need.  This broadened the interpretation to mean any person is our neighbor.
If Ruth is challenging the listener in how one should be inter-acting with the alien or foreigner, we need to then understand who is this individual?  Is it just the person who is being forced from their homeland and moving to another country in order to be able to survive?  Have you thought about yourselves as being the alien or foreigner?  How many people have directly moved from their birth city and have lived in a different city or state?  What was the reason for moving?  Ultimately it was seeking a better life.
But who is the alien or foreigner within our midst, if we broaden our definition?  If we classify “alien” as: one who has little or no voice in how laws affect them, would that not broaden our understanding?  What if the alien or foreigner was also characterized by being “outcast” “not seen?”  Maybe the person who is standing at the intersection with their hat out asking for help, food, or shelter?  What about if that person who is not “seen” is the person walking down the street who is talking to themselves in non-sensical jabber or has tourettes, could they not be the alien or foreigner in our midst?
My point is, there are many ways in which to understand who the “foreigner” or “alien” among us is.  The easiest way to recognize that person is asking the question: is this person an outsider, is this person being used as a social scapegoat?  Or is this person mistrusted out of fear because we are not familiar with their cultural background, or religious practices, or the color of their skin. 
Where are we on our “Walking the talk” as a church?  Knowing that a church is a collection of individuals who calls themselves followers of Jesus’ teachings?  When we are confronted with issues surrounding immigration reform, or topics around prison reform or the conversation about the death penalty, or on mental health care, or on health care for everyone, on homelessness, basic quality of life issues, are we actively being the “good Samaritan” stopping to do something about these problems?  Spending time in conversation in order to better understand and reconcile these issues?  Or are we of a mind that “it's not my problem” and react like the three monkeys who hide their eyes, their ears, and their mouths, mostly because we don’t want to put out the energy that Jesus calls us to put out, because it’s too much trouble to speak out, because if we speak out, we might be seen as unpatriotic, queer, or aa trouble makers?  Or possibly we think that we have resolved within our hearts and minds that change is necessary, and we don’t have to supply the voice for those who have no voice.
 What does “walking the talk” mean to you?  Better yet, what does walking the talk in light of what scripture says, mean to you?  Does it mean just offering up our sacrifices or does it mean scarifying, going the second mile like Ruth did for Naomi when she said,  “Your people shall be my people; your God shall be my God.”?  Amen